Are you curious about Ancestry Personal Discoveries Project, the new feature on your Ancestry DNA results summary page? In this post, you’ll gain some insights into their questions for this project and why answering them might benefit you.
As soon as I noticed they’d added this feature to my main DNA insights page a few days ago, I was extremely delighted. Companies should innovate by adding new features and functionality to their service; I can only applaud Ancestry DNA’s incredible efforts! My DNA results have provided an incredible opportunity to connect with family and discover where my ancestors came from – so naturally, I’m curious to discover what else they hold within.
How Can You Access Ancestry Personal Discoveries Project? Once logged into Ancestry DNA, the DNA Results Summary Page, previously known as Insights Page will appear – even though its actual name has changed! To check if Ancestry Personal Discoveries appear among your results scroll down just beneath your main results to check.
Most Ancestry DNA customers seem to have noticed this new feature on their account – it is currently in testing phase and can be seen here:
To take advantage of this new feature, it may be necessary to sign an updated terms of use agreement. This agreement covers all aspects of DNA testing as well as collecting information via questionnaires in order to provide additional insight into your DNA results.
What kind of questions does Ancestry’s Personal Discoveries Project pose?
This project’s questionnaires cover an array of subjects. Ranging from what you look like to what activities you like doing in your free time, this project includes questions regarding height, eye color, high school athletic participation status and number of languages spoken (for both genders). There are questions specific to men while others apply specifically to women.
As I didn’t know how long answering each survey would take me, I decided to do one every day until I found out how long answering would be. To my delight, the questionnaires had relatively easy questions that allowed me to complete them in short order. They mention on their page that additional questionnaires may be added periodically so I’ll make sure to come back often and see if more questions have been added for me to answer.
Some questions made me laugh out loud, such as the one about dimples. My teenager still sports cute dimples – perhaps they won’t come off yet?
What is the Purpose of Ancestry’s Personal Discoveries Project? Unfortunately, I can’t speak for Ancestry on their Personal Discoveries Project as I don’t work for them nor am privy to any information exclusive to me or other customers of Ancestry. That being said, I do have some insight into some of the science underlying why they might be asking these questions.
As you likely already know, DNA consists of numerous genes. Some genes determine eye color; others determine things such as whether you have blonde or brown hair (or dimples like my son!). Our genes play a significant role in who we are, what we like and possibly much more about ourselves than we realize – researchers spend much time and money trying to uncover which specific traits may or may not be determined by specific genes.
Ancestry DNA stands out as being one of the premier sources for information; having millions of customers who have undergone DNA tests makes Ancestry an invaluable source. When answering voluntary questionnaires about traits and characteristics such as language spoken by each customer (for instance when answering a survey about my number of languages spoken), Ancestry might even be able to link one specific aspect of my DNA with my likelihood of learning new ones!
Even without knowing exactly which insights they plan on sharing with us, I am keenly looking forward to witnessing them unfold.
Should You Participate in Ancestry Personal Discoveries Project? Your choice to participate or not in this research project is entirely yours – I enjoy participating, but some individuals might be uncomfortable answering personal questions about themselves.
Though I am unaware of their specific insights, I am eagerly awaiting to witness them unfold.
Should You Join Ancestry’s Personal Discoveries Project? Participation is entirely up to you; I personally love answering personal questions for this research project but some individuals might find answering such inquiries daunting.
If you have any inquiries, comments, or concerns regarding anything you read here, I welcome them in the form of comments below.
Leave a Reply